How is wind formed

How is wind formed?

Wind is defined as the horizontal movement of naturally occurring air currents at different speeds, Winds are formed mainly as a result of differences in the rate of heating the earth by the sun, and the different rates of atmospheric pressure in different locations on the surface, where the sun heats the earth in the tropics more than any other region on the earth’s surface, which leads to the formation of warm air that resulted from contact with air of the surface exposed to the sun, which in turn moves upwards; As a result of its low density after heating, it later ejects towards the cooler regions such as the poles, forming a low pressure system, and at the same time the cold air of higher density is heading to replace the hot air that was in contact with the surface in the tropics, forming a high pressure system, and in this way the wind blows from Places of high pressure to places of low pressure, and it is worth noting that the boundary separating these two zones is called the front.

Wind forming areas

The Earth includes five main regions in which different types of winds are formed, and they are as follows:

East arctic wind

Polar Easterlies, these winds are formed when cold air recedes at the poles, which leads to high pressure, and thus the southern air flows towards the equator, and then this flow deflects towards the west, and thus these winds blow from east to west between the two lines Views of 60 and 90 degrees in the southern and northern hemispheres.

West wind

Westerlies, which are winds of westerly origin that form at the mid-latitudes, and have strong blowing in winter; Where the pressure on the poles is low, while it weakens in the summer during the blowing of the polar east winds, which are more powerful than the westerly winds, and the strongest types of westerly winds blow between latitudes 40 and 50 degrees in the southern hemisphere, and the importance of the western winds emerged in the forties of The last century sailed during the Age of Discovery, when explorers and traders from Europe and Western Asia used it to access the spice markets of Southeast Asia and Australia.

horse latitude winds

Horse Latitudes, winds that form in a narrow range of latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees north and south called the Horse Latitudes, a dry and warm climate, including in some parts the many desert regions of the Atacama of America From the south, to the arid Kalahari in Africa, these winds are usually light in speed, and even if their strength is strong, this does not last for a long period of time.

trade winds

Trade Winds, which are the prevailing winds that blow from the east through the tropics, and were called the trade winds because of their important role in sea trade trips and exploration trips, as it was relied on to create a passable and fast road in the Atlantic Ocean and then the ocean The Pacific winds, and are still very important today in shipping voyages because of their important role in the movement of sea currents, and some of these winds are formed over the land and others over the oceans, where the trade winds formed on land are warmer and drier than those formed over the oceans.

stagnant winds

Doldrums, known to sailors as the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone/ ITCZ, are a zone extending five degrees north and south of the equator to form a belt around the Earth, produced by solar heating Condensation near the equator, pushing warm, moist air into the atmosphere, cools the air as a result of altitude, causing showers and storms.

wind speed measurement

Wind is measured by calculating the difference in wind speed and direction over a specified distance in the atmosphere horizontally and vertically, and wind speed is measured in meters per second multiplied by height in kilometers, and under normal conditions the wind moves at a higher speed in the atmosphere, which leads to severe wind speed in heights high.